Kelly Piquet’s brother reveals details of Max Verstappen’s row during the F1 weekend

Max Verstappen’s decision to remove The Guardian journalist Giles Richards from the Red Bull hospitality suite during the Japanese Grand Prix media day sent a ripple through the paddock that has not yet settled.

Verstappen was unambiguous about his reasons. In an interview with Viaplay, he explained that Richards had deliberately tried to provoke him and had treated him disrespectfully following the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

That, in Verstappen’s view, was reason enough to refuse him entry to the Red Bull press briefing. The four-time world champion has since faced considerable criticism from within the F1 paddock for his conduct. But not everyone has lined up against him.

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‘We only hear the question’

Nelson Piquet Jr., the former F1 driver and brother of Verstappen’s partner Kelly Piquet, has come to his brother-in-law’s defence. Speaking publicly on the matter, the Brazilian argued that the outside world is not seeing the full picture.

“What we see, you understand, we pick up the camera and film the presenter with the microphone. Nobody sees what is behind it,” he said, according to Viaplay.

“If there was also a camera pointed the other way to capture the faces of the journalists, their reactions, the laughter, you understand? Because everyone already knows that most journalists are British, and that they favour the British drivers. Lando, Hamilton – all the English ones.”

Piquet Jr. was careful not to claim that he knows exactly what happened in Abu Dhabi. But he made clear that the version of events Verstappen described is entirely plausible to him.

“That is something that is already normal in Formula 1, because it is a sport where most of the teams are based in England,” he said.

“He is the only one who sees it. We do not see it. We only hear the question. We do not see the journalist’s face, we do not see the expression on his face. For the journalist, it is very easy to say: oh, what Max did was completely wrong or unethical. But we do not see it when a journalist is mocking him or laughing at him.”

‘It would not surprise me’

Piquet Jr. stopped short of stating that Richards behaved poorly, but he was pointed about what he suspects could have taken place.

The specific moment in question came after the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when Richards reportedly gave Verstappen a question about his collision with George Russell in Spain earlier that season.

“I am not saying it happened or it did not. No – that is what Max claimed. He even gave an interview to Viaplay and said exactly that,” Piquet Jr. said.

“And I know the English journalists. They cheer for the English drivers and they are against the rest. It would not surprise me if that kind of thing happened.”

The intervention from Piquet Jr. will do little to resolve the broader debate about where the line sits between a driver managing access and a driver avoiding accountability. But it serves as a reminder that inside Verstappen’s world, the narrative looks rather different from the one that has dominated the headlines.

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